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A group of secondary school teachers broke into and entered the office of the Minister of Education in protest against the arbitrary transfer of 120 teachers to other schools. The transfers were made to punish teachers who participated in last year's strikes demanding the improvement of the conditions of employees in the education sector. The teachers considered this act a punishment for a strike they held to demand of their rights and also a violation of civil service law in Mauritania.

For his part, Mohamed Ould Rabani, Secretary General of the independent syndicate of secondary education teachers, slammed the transfer as a dangerous precedent in the history of Mauritania and asked his colleagues not to conform to the ministry's orders. In the same context, another group of arbitrary transferred teachers, held a demonstration in front of the Education Minister Ahmed Ould Bah's office, denouncing the decision and demanding its immediate retreat. Some of them also protested in front of the presidential palace in Nouakchott and threatened to resign from their posts in case the decision is not retracted. It is worth mentioning that the ministry had suspended the salaries of hundreds of teachers after their participation in the strikes organized by the syndicate.

The Mauritanian Ministry of Education arbitrarily transferred dozens of secondary education teachers because of their participation in legitimate strikes which is considered a dangerous violation of the rights of syndicate members, especially the right to demonstrate, which is guaranteed by article 14 in the constitution and by the international agreements signed by our country, such as the the International Labor Convention number 87, which is related to syndicate freedoms.

Tiguend blog posts a testimony of one the teachers effected by the transfers, entitled “This is why I deserve the sanction” where he speaks of the injustice of that decision:

I have been teaching for 10 years in Trarza region and never during those years have I got less then 17 points [out of a total of 20] on my evaluation. I have worked with various directors and my salary has never been suspended except this time because of my participation in the strike. I have no record of absence or slackening in my duties and everything is fine, thanks God, until the director Mohamed Ould el Talib came and sent a report to the Rousou School director to whom he reports, asking him to give me a 6/20 grade and to accuse me of snitching and gossip, which he has been bragging about since his illegal nomination as head of administration. All this was a reason to transfer me arbitrarily along with 16 other teachers in Trarza whose only fault is to have taken part in the strike knowing that the law guarantees this right and the constitution protects it for a noble life and a more dignified education.

Mauritan.net says that the transfer is a result of a complaint, accusing the teachers of “inciting strikes and exercising politics”:

A new date with a year marked with a crisis in the education sector with 108 teachers refusing punitive transfer and education syndicates promising to make the decision fall and a minister who is very creative in making up crises and accumulating failure